Evil Eye is that kind of movie that
gracefully tries to do it all but ends up not really knowing what to do with
itself afterwards. When looking at the film as a whole, it feels like a nice
recap of the enduring motifs of the giallo, occult, gothic horror, and erotica
film, and for that it will surely find a place in the hearts of Eurocult fans (it
certainly has for me), but it’s hard to tell if it is a work of genius, a
mistake of a masterpiece, or just an empty, routine cash-in. Is it great or not-great? I honestly have referred to
it as both.
The Spanish, Italian, Mexican co-production Evil Eye
(aka Mal de ojo in Spain, Malocchio and Eroticofollia in
Italy, and Más allá del exorcismo in Mexico) is directed and co-written
by Mario Siciliano. It was also co-written by Spanish writers Julio
Buchs and Federico De Urrutia. Interestingly, Buchs and De
Urrutia have several co-writing credits together, such as Alta tension
(1972) and A Bullet for Sandoval (1969), many of which Buchs directed. Evil
Eye seems to be the very last film either writer worked on. Julio Buchs
died in 1973 before the film was released.
With Spirits of
Death, I’m reminded of how pleasing it is to keep discovering new
worthwhile Eurocult movies of the vintage variety. Years ago I thought that I
might have been coming close to exhausting my selection of every notable Eurohorror / giallo / surreal-art-house-drama
film. However, that notion seems to become more and more untrue with time,
which is counterintuitive, as it would seem that the more movies of this type you
see the closer you would be to seeing them all, but it nonetheless keeps
opening up a world that always seems bigger the further you go in.
Spirits of Death is one of those arty,
Eurohorror, giallo movies of a particular brand that I can’t believe I went so
long without knowing (let’s see if we can coin the term “Sleeping Eurocult” –
in winking reference to Agatha Christie’s
Sleeping Murder). Spirits of Death is directed and
cinematographed by Romano Scavolini,
who many may know as the director of an infamous Video Nasty from the early
‘80s, Nightmares in a Damaged Brain.
He is also the brother of Sauro Scavolini,
director of another marvelous “Sleeping Eurocult” Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods.
The film is essentially a
gathering of colorful guests, who have been invited by one of the proprietors,
Marialé (Ida Galli aka Evelyn Stewart), with mysterious
motives, to a spooky old castle. It might sound familiar, and it is, but the
gathering turns into a fascinating, candlelit journey into the underground
caverns of the castle as well as a delirious entertaining descent into a batshit
crazy Fellini-esque masquerade dinner
party before things turn over to a more traditional murder mystery, as party
guests start getting knocked off by an unseen assailant in the latter half.
